LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 




©^.^..Infoft^t Ifo 

Shelf jZSS 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



/ 

i U. i 

» I I ■!!-♦- <4» 

f A ! 

I PRIMER 

OF THE 

HEBREW BIBLE, 



BEING AN EASY 



INTRODUCTION 



TO THE 



Original Language 



OF THE 



OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES, 



-W 



/ 



New York: 
JOHN W. BANTA, Publisher. 

\ l88 3- 

+ 



\s> 



°\ 



fc 



PREFACE. 



«*"** 



This Primer is. designed to enable the student of the 
English Bible to read the Old Testament in the original 
Hebrew. 

Language is spoken or written. The Hebrew is em- 
phatically a written language. To us, indeed, it is the 
language of One Book. 

Spoken language is audible ; written language is vis- 
ible. We learned our mother-tongue by sound, know- 
ing nothing of letters ; we learn a book language by 
sight, independently of its pronunciation. In the Heb- 
rew, it is often impossible to determine the pronuncia- 
tion of a word, till we know its etymology and meaning. 

The Hebrew is here regarded, therefore, as living on 
the page and speaking to the eye. Having learned the 
forms of the letters, and how certain letters are used in 
the inflection of words, the student may at once proceed, 
with the help of a dictionary or translation, to read by 
sight the Hebrew Bible. Vocalization, however inter- 
esting and important, belongs, as we have seen, to a 
later period of study. 



Copyright, New York, L882, r.v ■ 






LC Control Number 




tm P 96 031287 



HEBREW BIBLE PRIMER. 



THE ALPHABET. 

Hebrew is written from right to left. There are 
twenty-two letters ; five of which, at the end of words, 
are modified in form. 

Similar forms must be carefully distinguished: 

:£)?] :yaj? :dc©d :jm :nnn :-pn :m .03 

EXERCISE. Genesis I: 1—8. 

nw d^deti nx dt6n *na rvt^m ; 
-]»ni lnai inn nrrn ynKm :pan 
^5 ^?y namo dt6n nrii Dinn Ms by 

:*m TPI "118 VP D^K "(Din rD^DH 

dt6n b-iai aits ^ irai nx dt6n *m 
"wb wrbx mp'*) : -pm pai -nan pa 
dv ipa vn any tin rM> *np -pnbi ov 
aw -pro jrp"i tV dti^n *io*n nn« 
n* dt6k ffjn : o^ob dtj pa ^nao tpi 
jrp*6 nnno "«bk o^n pa t na , i jppnn 
ahpn : p vm jpp-fc ^jto i»« pspn pai 
Di 1 ipa \ti a-ii? th d , d» ypib d 1 *-^ 



2 HEBREW BIBLE PRIMER. 

A word of one letter never stands alone, but is 
joined as a prefix to the word following it : 

— w — d — b — : — i — n — 3 

LITERAL TRANSLATION. 

The hyphen (-) denotes a prefixed word of one letter. The 
dotted line (....) stands for a word which cannot be trans- 
lated. Affixed italics indicate inflectional modifications, 
the combination representing but one word in the original. 

In-beginning created God .... the-heavens and- 
.... the-earth. And-the-earth was formless and-void, 
and-darkness upon jiaceo/' deep ; and-Spirito/ 1 God 
moving upon faceo/" .waters. And-said God, Be light ; 
and-was light. And-saw God .... the-light that good. 
And-divided God between the-light and-between 
the-darkness. And-called God to-light Day, and-to- 
darkness called/ie Night. And-was evening and-was 
morning, day one. And-said God, Be firmament 
in-midsto/^ waters, and-be dividing between waters 
to-waters. And-made God .... the-firmament and- 
divided between the-waters which from-beneath 
to-firmament and-between the-waters which from-above 
tD-firmament. And-was so. And-called God to-fir- 
mament Heavens. And-was evening and-was morning, 
day second. 

ENGLISH BIBLE. 

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the 
earth was without form, and void ; and darkness was upon the face of 
the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw 
the light, that it was good: and God divided *the light from the dark- 
ness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called 
Night. fAnd the evening and the morning were the first day. And 
God said, Let there be a % firmament in the midst of the waters, and let 
it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, 
and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the 
waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God 
called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning 
were the second day. 

* Heb. between the light and between the darkness, t Heb. And the evening 
was, and the morning was. t Heb. expansion. 



HEBREW BIBLE PRIMER. 



VOCABULAKY. 


"fl* 


pa 


Light. 


Between. 


ina 


npa 


One ; First. 
GOD. 


Day-break, Morning 

ma 

To Create. 


TDK 


n 


To Say. 


1 1 

The. 


pa 

Earth. 
1»K 


rrri - 

lb Be. 

to 


Who ; Which. 


1 

And 


Untranslatable; marks the 
definite object of a verb. 


Darkness 


— a 


aio 


In. 


Good. 


bna 


DV 


To Divide ; to Distinguish. 


Day. 


yp 


— 2 


Void ; Emptiness. 


Like- 



HEBREW BIBLE PRIMER. 



That ; relative conjunction. 

P 

Thus, So. 

— b 

To. 

Night. 



■D 



From. 
Water, Waters. 

bv 

Upon ; Above. 
Evening. 

HEW 

To Make. 

ru? 

Face. 

inp 

To Call : to Name. 

rtin 

To See. 



rw*n 

Beginning. 

nn 

Spirit. 

To Move, Brood or 
Hover over. 



Expanse ; Sky, Fir- 
mament. 



■» 



Who ; Which. 

UfflD 

Heaven, Heavens. 
Second. 

inn 

Formless ; Desolation. 

Dinn 

Ocean ; $<? Deep. 

-]in 

Middle, Midst. 

nnn 

Under, Beneath. 



HEBREW BIBLE PRIMER. 5 

THE VERB. 

Verbs have five conjugations: 1. Active, as, to create; 
2. Passive, as, to be created; 3. Causative Active, as, 
to cause to create; 4. Causative Passive, as, to be caused 
to be created; 5. Middle (but often passive), as, to 
create oneself. The conjugations are characterized, 
according to mood and tense, by the addition of cer- 
tain letters to the trilateral root, and severally take 
the personal affixes throughout as in the verb To Be 
(which has but one conjugation). The Synopsis of 
the verb To Create, will show at a glance the inflection 
of the Hebrew verb. Supply for the dash the letters 
next above it, and add the prefixes on the right and 
the postfixes on the left to each conjugation separately. 
The inserted ) in 1 and the 1 in 3 are often omitted. 
If a verb begins with £?, Q or J£ , the p characteristic 
of 5 is transposed with it, and in the latter case changed 
to [3. The two participles in 1 are respectively active 
and passive, as, creating, created. 

Irregular Verbs. 
Initial ^ and J, middle ) and \ final j") and a 
duplicate letter are frequently dropped from the in- 
flected root. Hp7 t° ^ e drops 7 ; j{^J to give drops 
both j's. ^ is often dropped after a prefixed fc$, and 
J and f^ before J and p postfixed. Compensation is 
sometimes made by attaching to the fragment of the 
root a prefixed ) or a postfixed f^ or \ the infini- 
tive taking final fj or f^. 

To Find a Verb in the Dictionary. 
Keject all affixes, and if three letters remain, that is 
the root. If two, add ^ or J (7 for pjp^y to the be- 
ginning; or, add j"j to the end ; or, insert ) or *>; or, 
double the second letter. If one, add 1 or J to the 
be~giT>TTtng-BnT^^X"|"^° r "|in^) to the end. 



HEBREW BIBLE PRIMER. 



The Verb To Be. 



1 


' 


n">n 


He was 






nn^n 


She was 






rrn 


Thou wast m. 






n^n 


Thou wast /. 






tpti 


I was 






vn 


They were 






nn^n 


You were m. 






inTi 


You were f. 






'ir>n 


We were 




Tl 1 


nri 1 


HewiUbe 


1 




rrnn 


She will be 


8 . 
11 


Tin 


rpnn 


Thou wilt be m. 




"nn 


Thou wilt be /. 




via 


rrnn 


I will be 


K 




m« 


They will be m. 




pnn 


nr^nn 


They will be /. 


s 8 
1 fc 


1 


r>nn 


Ye will be m. 


| 




nj^nn 


Ye will be /. 




to 


nro 


"We will be 






rm 


Be thou m. 






«n 


Be thou /. 






rn 


Be ye m. 






ru«n 


Be ye /. 




ppn 


To be 




rrn 

mn 


[■ Being 



HEBREW BIBLE PRTMER. 





4 Synoptical View 

5. 4. 


o/* #ie Fer& To Create. 

3. 2. 1. 




i n 

n 
; n 

) 

an 
l n 

13 


snann 


man 


Nnan 


ma: 





n 

n 
n 

n 
n 
n 

3 


1 
) 

n: 
i 


man 


ma 


jsrna 


ma 



■ 

— 


tfna 


i 
ro 


mann 


- - • 


*man 


vmn 


wo 






mann 


man 


SP13J1 


*mn 


Wa 






mano 


fcTOD 


ttnac 


tf-nj 


mo 



8 



HEBREW BIBLE PREtfER. 



- THE NOUN. 

Most feminine nouns end in ,™J or p and their plurals 
in ft) ; most others are masculine and add []"' in the 
plural. Adjectives and participles are declined by 
adding these terminations to the masculine singular. 
There is no neuter gender. A noun modified by a follow- 
ing noun or jDronoun (Spirit^ facer/ etc.) is in the Con- 
struct State. J"| feminine becomes p, f\] plural often 
adds ^ and Q"* plural drops Q. Otherwise there is gen- 
erally no change and the construct state is understood. 

THE PERSONAL PRONOUN. 

The forms of the objective case never stand alone, but 
are suffixed to verbs, to nouns in the construct state, to 
the prefix prepositions and to the particle JHK- 



Objective Case. 


Nominative Case. 




Me 

Thee m. 


nns 


i 

Thou m. 


'- 1 


Thee/ 


^na n« 


Thou/ 


l in- u 

n m 
u 

P 


Him 
Her 

Us 

You m. 
You/ 


Kin 

Kin trn 
u« una unjK 

DTlK 

runs* jns 


He 

She 
We 

Ye m. 

Ye/ 


Q DH 12 

! ] p n: 


Them m. 
Them/. 


non Dn 

ran ]n 


They m. 
They/. 



rin^ — These letters are sometimes appended to 

words to express emphasis, desire, etc. ,*"| thus added 
often signifies motion towards or into. One tense or mood 
is frequently used for another. The present tense is 
usually expressed by the active participles. The in- 
finitive may be in the construct state and may take 
the prefix prepositions and the sufiix pronouns. 



, 



